WineAlign sees big traffic in 2010

Wine connoisseurs in Ontario interested in hearing about the best wines available in the province should be paying attention to WineAlign.

And if website traffic has anything to say about it, they have; December 2010 was WineAlign’s number one all-time month for website traffic, approaching 60,000 readers in that one month.

The website, which provides reviews and ratings from a number of writers, has exploded in popularity over the course of last year. It only took four months for the website’s readership to jump from 20,000 monthly to just under 60,000 in December.

Website curator David Lawrason himself was quite pleased and surprised by the successes of 2010, as he mentions on his blog:

The year is ending on an incredible high for WineAlign, with December shattering the single month record for new users and usage.  The month to month increases have actually been dramatic since August.  We celebrated with a four-hour Christmas lunch at Adega Restaurant, opening several good bottles en route.  We toasted our success, but spent most of the time brainstorming about what we can do better, getting increasingly creative as the wine flowed. A more grounded meeting comes early in 2011 to work out details, but I can assure you that WineAlign will continue to evolve to its full potential as the best place for Ontarians to discover and enjoy wine and its community.

So as 2011 dawns the potential exists for WineAlign to be the essential reference for the almost 20,000 wines sold annually in Ontario (almost 65% of which are not available at the LCBO or Vintages). My New Year’s resolution is to capture as many of those as I can, providing context, comparison and any other information that might help you get the most of the bottles you purchase.

WineAlign has made it its mission to catalogue all that is available from LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) stores within the province. And it’s more than a simple database or series of personal opinions; it allows visitors to find wines by price, food pairings, types and ratings. On top of that, visitors can curate their own favourite wines which will generate future suggestions for wines from the website and visitors can share suggestions with each other.

Check it out here; and maybe you can find out if the bubbly you were drinking on New Year’s Eve was any good after all.